
Qass. 
Book. 



®:i)e ISncrotonci Nation. u %. 



A 

DISCOURSE COMMEMORATIVE 

OF 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 

BY 

REY. EDWIN A. BULKLEY, 



2[l)e Jincrouintli Nation 



DISCOURSE 



COMMEMORATIVE OF THE 



DEATH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 

SIXTEENTH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES : 
PREACHED IN THE 

First Presbyterian Church of Plattsburgh, N. T. 

April 19, 1865, 
BY THE PASTOR, 

REV. EDWIN A. BULKLEY. 



PLATTSBURGH, N. Y. : 

J. W. TUTTLE, BOOK AND JOB PRINTER. 

1865. 



^^1 



COERESPONDENCE, 



Plattsburgh, N. Y., May 1, 1865. 
REV. EDWIN A. BULKLEY, 

Pastor of the First Presbyteriak Church of Plattsburgh : — 
Reverend and Dear Sir : 

The sentiments of the discourse delivered by you, on the 19th of April last, 
commemorative of the life, character, and death of President Lincoln, were 
in such sympathy with, and so expressive of the public mind and feeling, 
that its publication for future perusal, and to perpetuate the memory of that 
sad occasion, would be highly gratifying to all. 

We therefore request, that youfurnisfh us, at your earliest convenience, a 
copy of the discourse for publication. 

Very Respectfully yours, 
T. DeForris, (t. L. Clark, 

G. V. Edwards, S. Couch, 

L. CooLEY, R. O. Barber, 

Z. C. Platt, J. J. Drown, 

E. Hathaway, Gr. M. Beckwith, 

W. P. MooERS, W. W. Hartwell, 

G. A. Dewey, J. H. Mooers, 

P. D. MooRE, J. C. Wood, 

G. F. BiXBY, C. H. FooTE. 



Gentlemen : 

You know the extreme haste, with which the discourse you ask of me for 
publication, was prepared. On this account I might well hesitate at sub- 
mitting it to the criticism of the eye, although you were pleased to give it 
a considerate hearing. But if with its imperfections it can be of service to 
you, I wUl comply with your request, gratefully acknowledging your courtesy 
to me therein. 

With much respect, yours, 

EDWIN A. BULKLEY. 
To Dr. T. DeForris and others. 



DISCOURSE 



LAMENTATIONS V : 15, 16.—" The joy op our heart is ceased ; 

OUR DANCE IS TURNED INTO MOURNING. ThE CROWN IS FALLEN FROM 
OUR HEAD." 

The world's history cannot often have shown a more sudden 
and violent alternation of public feeling, than that which our 
nation has just suffered. A fortnight ago we were jubilant, 
as at no previous day of these times of frequent and high 
excitement. "We had before hung out our flags, raised our 
huzzas, rang our bells, fired our salutes, and lighted our 
bonfires. But then there was a brimming and overrunning 
fullness of exultation, which rose from the assurance that our 
victories were not temporary and inconclusive, but presages of 
the certain and early end of that conspiracy against our gov- 
ernment, gigantic in dimensions and wickedness, with which 
for lour years we have been in a death-grapple. We felt when 
the capital of the rebellion was captured, that its heart was 
pierced, and its life already paralyzed at the extremities, must 
beat with ever feebler pulsations, and soon expire. Therefore 
we gave loose to our joys. Then as in daily succession, the 
tidings came to us of the arniy of the vanquished, dwindling 
in its flight, and at last surrendering and disbanding, our 
enthusiasm by its protracted exercise became spent, and 
subsided from open demonstration into calm and deep satis- 
faction. In such a frame the news fell upon us, sharp and 
rending as the lightning which bore it, that he on whom our 
national confidence was resting as never before, and whom we 
were becoming willing to trust in the perplexities of admin- 



"istration, — our President was dead, — dead by tlie hand of 
villainous assassination. Men told it to others, with awe- 
struck faces, tearful eyes, quivering lips, and choking utterance. 
They had not heart to go on in their pursuits. Sorrow and 
wrath, such as abhorent crime always arouses in the human 
breast, took strong hold of them. Gloom and despondency 
beclouded every countenance, and entered into every home. 
The contrast was complete. "The joy of our heart was ceased ; 
our dance was turned into mourning ; the crown was fallen 
from our head." We ivere like a harp, attuned to the highest 
pitch, and giving forth at every touch the lofty sounding 
chords of gladness, swelling more loudly at each impulse, 
then sinking into modulated and more perfect harmonies of 
cheerfulness. We are like that harp, struck by a ruthless, 
reckless hand, with a jangling discord, the strings unkeyed 
and snapt, and now we hear it only in the melancholy minor, — 
the sigh of sadness, — the wail of smitten and dismayed spirits. 
The mourning of the people was so profound as to be 
oppressive, but it had a certain grandeur, which should not 
pass unnoticed. Our external reverence for authorities is not 
great. Yet beneath this seeming carelessness and disrespect, 
there rules a spirit which though it does not bend the knee and 
do the obeisance of form to a potentate, will sincerely honor 
while living, those who hold high place as the representatives 
of the nation, and as sincerely lament them when by their 
deaths important posts are vacated, and consequent loss and 
disorder are apprehended. Over and above all the divisions 
and animosities of partisan feeling, whenever a true occasion 
calls for it, another feeling shows itself to be controlling, 
thrusting down out of sight all that is contrary to it, and 
yielding all fit homage to those to whom homage is due. 
When I saw amid the other signs of last Saturday's sorrow, 
how not only men who had been the political admirers and 
adherents of President Lincoln, but also men who had been 
opposed to his principles, and even bitter against his admin- 
istration were as touched, and stirred, and deeply bereaved 



as others, and counted it a personal indignity that they should 
he suspected of gratification hy the occurrence of his death, 
and how all unsympathizing expressions had to he suppressed 
or got quick rehuke, I was strengthened amid my sorrow. 
And when there followed from the public press of every variety 
of conflicting opinion, so unanimous an outburst of lamentation, 
and appeal for consolidated and persevering support of the 
government, my faith in my kind, and my faith in the republic 
was greatly renewed. I felt that there could be but few 
\\Tetches so corrupted as to gloat over the foul deed that had 
been done, and that the cause of the country was not lost, 
when so many expressed their devoted determination, that it 
should not suffer the injury traitorous hands would have done 
it, by slaying its head. 

A ruler's death could scarcely have taken jjlace at a more 
inopportune time we thought, and therefore our grief was 
aggravated. As in previous stages of our contest, we may 
err in our calculations of what is needful in an emergency, 
but it seemed to us, at the first intelligence of our bereavement, 
that it would be well nigh ruin to our national interests. 
Though we are recovered from this feeling, and more hope- 
ful, we are still anxious and apprehensive. The ship of state 
will perhaps steer wildly we fear, now that the skilled helms- 
man is taken from the wheel. His eye has grown wary as he 
has peered long into the cloudy night, through which we 
have been sailing ; — his hand has grown more firm, as the 
shock of the storm has threatened to tear away its grasp ; — 
his heart has grown more undaunted, as danger has lowered 
more fearfully near. And now as we are approaching the 
shallows and bars, — the narrow and tortuous channels, — the 
sunken rocks and boiling breakers, — over and through which 
we must enter the port of peace, we need all these for our safe 
piloting into the haven of ou.r desires. If I have not misinter- 
preted public opinion, there has been an increasing confidence 
in President Lincoln's sincerity and integrity of purpose, — 
practical and comprehensive good sense, — benevolence and 



8 

magnanimity of disposition, and whatever have been our 
theories of administration, whoever our preferred exponents 
of these, — the people as a whole, were settling down into 
acquiescence and trust, in assurance that the reins of govern- 
ment were in wise and safe hands. It cannot be less than a 
severe calamity which removes him at this juncture. The 
man upon whom divine providence has let fall the mantle of 
succession may prove a true and fit man. Grod make him so, 
we heartily pray, in his private character and official acts. 
Yet we mourn, anxiety largely entering into our mourning, 
for the proven and the trusty has been taken away, and we 
crave the quieting of apprehension, lest some national disaster 
be brought upon us by mal-administration. 

I cannot properly sketch the biography, or analyze the char- 
acter of Abraham Lincoln, and therefore undertake only the 
briefest mention of incidents, and the merest outline of his 
pergonal and official traits. 

Born in Kentucky in 1809, he was a little over fifty-six 
years of age, when death came to him in such shocking form. 
While a boy he removed to Indiana, where the scanty edu- 
cation was obtained, which was the basis of his subsequent 
attainments in self-improvement. He was a learner through 
all the opportunities of observation and information he had, 
whether on the farm, or the Mississippi flat-boat. Amid the 
vicissitudes of frontier life, — as a volunteer officer, beating 
back the incursions of the Indians, — as a tiller of the ground, — 
by the study and practice of law in the growing new settle- 
ments, — he gathered a varied experience and sturdy common 
sense, which afterwards made his resources for practical use- 
fulness very great. He was not a professional and hackneyed 
politician, serving only a short period in his State legislature, 
and one term in Congress, before his nomination and election 
to the Presidency. Yet he was not altogether undistinguished 
in public life, for his associates held him in high repute as a 
clear-headed and serviceable legislator, and he could be no 
common thinker and speaker, who could debate side by side 



through a whole campaign with a man of so eminent intellect 
and speech as Stephen A. Douglass, and receive at least equal 
laurels. The troublous times in which he was brought to rule 
over the nation, and the subsequent occurrences of four years, 
are fresh recollections with us, and material for a great histor- 
ical era, the proper view of which, it is yet too early to take. 
The only re-elected President we have had for more than a 
quarter-century, he had but barely retaken the reins of gov- 
ernment, with the prospect just opening before him of a more 
tranquil term of service, after gaining that one object eagerly 
desired by his patriot heart, the pacification and reconstruction 
of the Union, when he fell. Twice has the nation mourned 
for Presidents, early removed from office by death. Now for 
the first, for one taken away by the red hand of blood. God 
forbid that this should become an historic example in the 
career of our republic, and the criminal who wi'ithes under 
the restraints or penalty of strong and righteous authority, 
be encouraged to resort to the assassin's cowardly weapon. 
What was the special motive of the misguided and guilty man 
who made one so noble and so needed as Abraham Lincoln 
his victim, we do not yet fully know. But let his deed serve 
as one more and ever memorable illustration of the essential 
barbarism and cruelty of that system, of which, from the 
depth of my soul I thank Grod, we see the last vestiges being 
expelled from our land. 

With me, I think you will quite agree, that our late Pres- 
ident was no ordinary statesman. Rough-hewn indeed, and 
unschooled in diplomatic phrase and usage, yet never losing 
sympathy with the people from whom he sprung, and so al- 
ways able to speak and wi-ite to the mind and heart of the 
people, he was wise in the true policy of governing, and 
skillfully followed it. If he was not a bold leader, far out- 
running and beckoning on the sentiment of the country, he 
kept pace with it, and gave full expression to it, when it 
wanted to find voice. No puppet he, to move as cabinet 
ministers behind pulled strings, and be but an echo of their 



10 

prompting. Not despising counsel, he could and would de- 
liberate unto an independent conviction, and then fearlessly 
and immoveably plant himself upon it. There was a breadth 
about his ultimate opinions and decisions, which showed that 
thorough scanning had been given to every point of importance, 
and all the connected intricacies as nearly as possible unrav- 
elled. Let the proper expediency of his course of action be 
questioned, as it will be in the conflict of political theories, it 
must be conceded, that he has fully won rank and earned 
homage, as an intelligent and powerful ruler. Even from 
prejudiced, unfriendly critics, across the water, he has extorted 
a meed of praise, as in the connection of his late inaugural, 
when it is said, that " for political weight, moral dignity, 
and unaffected solemnity, it has had no equal in our time. 
No statesman ever uttered words, stamped at once with the 
seal of so deep a wisdom and so true a simplicity. The 'vil- 
lage attorney' of whom Sir G. C. Lewis and many other wise 
men wrote with so much scorn in 1861, seems destined to be 
one of those ' foolish things of the world' which are destined 
to confound the wise, — one of those weak things which shall 
' confound the things that are mighty.' " 

In the view of all, his administration has been a most 
eventful period, signalized by occurrences which must ever 
be memorable in our annals. When he first took the oath 
of office, rebellion was seething and hissing, in readiness for 
an early eruption, and soon the country's standard fell at the 
ever more dishonored spot where treason insulted it. Was 
it by coincidence or design, that when on the fourth anniver- 
sary of that shame, the Stars and Stripes were again unfurled 
over the ruined battlements of Sumpter, they had waved but 
a few hours, ere he was smitten down ? And it comes up 
also to be noticed, as a coincidence at least by me, that going 
back four years from this very day of his burial, we reach 
the date when the first troops he summoned to save his cap- 
ital from the grasp of rebellion, (of whom were some from 
my former pastoral charge), were murderously shot at in the 



11 

streets of Baltimore. How much of history has been wrought 
and written in these four years ! Think of the innumerable 
armies, overawing even Europe by their multitude, mustered 
in for service, and mustered out by death. Think of the 
astounding development of our national power and prowess ; 
— of the flowing in of resources faster than the drain upon 
them, of the rousing up of enterprise which has shaken off 
all drawbacks, and gone strait-forward ; — of the accumulation 
of debt and the burdens of taxation, with the unmurmuring 
acquiescence of the people ; of all the financial fluctuations and 
revolutions. Think of the alternate victories and defeats ; — 
of the gory battle fields, from Glettysburgh, southward through 
the whole wide arena of conflict. Think of that glorious 
Edict of Freedom, which unloosed the fetters of millions of 
bondsmen, and gave them a legal liberty, becoming an actual 
liberty as fast as with our arms we opened our way into the 
house of their bondage. Compress all these, and other events 
which I cannot enumerate, into the space of these four years^ 
and there is more history than often as many centuries will 
make. In it all Abraham Lincoln stands a central personage 
and controlling actor. Amid these associations, his era, if 
not his personal qualities and deeds, must make him historic 
and grand. As the world will judge ere long, a great man 
goes down to the grave to day. 

We ^ill all award him the distinction of genuine upright- 
ness. "Honest" was a title with which his friends loved to 
honor him, and his political antagonists did not deny his desert 
of it. That there have been dishonesty and injustice among 
some of his subordinates is probably unquestionable, — and it 
should not be surprising, — in a government so extended, — in 
a time of disorder. Yet never we believe have these been 
practiced with his acquiescence even, and in no instance has 
there been any substantiated impeachment of his personal 
integrity. To an extent wonderful in such times of excite- 
ment and passion, even accusations and suspicions have been 
very infrequent. Significant testimony to his high honor and 



12 

trustworthiness, as given by a former associate in Congress, 
in a speech afterwards made in the secession convention of 
Virginia has only just been brought to light from among the 
dark secrets of that body. 

His benevolent geniality and tenderness of disposition was 
certainly a high moral quality, though lately we almost began 
to fear it might lead to overkind and insijfficient dealing with 
traitors. His buoyant good humor and outgushing wit was a 
part of this temper. Too constant and broad perhaps to satisfy 
our ideal of the refinement and dignity appropriate to a high 
official, it yet did not so much as it might seem detract from 
a suitable seriousness, being but the rippling of the surface 
and not the undercurrent, as our true and discerning English 
friend, Goldwin Smith witnessed, after interviews with him. 
For my part, I have often thought it a happy thing, that he 
was so made up, that he could relieve the stern, steady pres- 
sure of his crushing responsibilities, by a little by-play of the 
feelings. A better alleviation however, I rejoice to believe 
he had from the weight of official burdens ; — that prayerful 
spirit and habit, which led him early to ask the continued 
prayers of the nation, and to go aside in the morning hour 
for communion with God and His word. It is no newspaper 
gossip, but reliable testimony, that he was a Christian man, 
having learned his need of divine mercy through both the 
discipline of domestic and national affliction. Would that 
he had completed this testimony by the fuller confession of 
Christ through union with his Church ! But in this he was 
like too many of our public men ; — they delay duty till they 
return to private life, even when their convictions are estab- 
lished rightly ; — and so the scope and force of a proper ex- 
ample is reduced. 

"Whenever eulogy is attempted, however sincere we are in 
it, we are in danger of excess. But I do not go beyond an 
opinion, long honestly held, and gradually increasing, when 
I place the name of Abraham Lincoln, among the greatest of 
those which our republic has had to enshrine. George 



13 

Washington, Andrew Jackson, and Abraham Lincoln, thus 
far in our history are the names, which the peoj)le shall first 
recall and honor. Greater than either we may find, in many 
attributes of a ruler. But in single-eyed, unselfish, earnest 
devotion to true and lasting po})ular interests, none. I know 
that this is anticipating the verdict of time. Yet the pre- 
diction is hazarded, that it will be so ; — and more that even 
the men of the South, now imbittered and hateful towards 
him who by the arm of power has asserted the supremacy of 
the Union, will by-and-by discern and afterwards confess, 
that his strengthening of federal authority and removal of the 
incubus of slavery, is their highest civil and social blessing. 

With these features of his character before us, let us cherish 
and revere his memory. 

When the bitter news of his assassination came to us, my 
mind ran over familiar history for parallels to it. There were 
examples of rulers and of aspirants for rule, who had gone out 
from life by violence and crime ; — through jealousy, ambition, 
revenge, or other base passions of the wicked ; — and through 
hatred of truth and goodness. There was Caesar stabbed by 
Brutus. But the murdered triumvir was undermining the 
dearest liberties of Rome. So his death gave no resemblance, 
save perhaps as we think of the suicidal ingratitude towards 
our slain President, whose heart was beating with known 
intentions of leniency and generosity towards even double- 
dyed traitors. Then we might say,. that as he received the 
fatal shot, 

"Ingratitude, more strong than traitor's arms 

Quite vanquished him : then burst his mighty heart." 

There was Marat killed by Charlotte Corday. But then vir- 
tue was with the assassin, and not with the assassinated. 
He a bestial, lecherous tyrant. She a high-minded devotee, 
sacrificing her life for her country's freedom. But again I 
thought of William, Prince of Orange, — that noble man, — 
who under the delineation of Motley the historian, seems fully 



14 

the comi^eer of our own "beloved Washington. Wise, ener- 
getic, undaunted, and patient, he had guided the Netherlands 
through their long and fierce war with the Spanish Empire, 
and all its fearful power as exercised by that inhuman monster, 
Alva, and the Inquisition as his agency. Victory, with de- 
liverance and peace seemed near, when he was smitten by the 
ball of the assassin. The popular grief was intense. His char- 
acter says the historian, "had been expanding steadily as the 
difficulties of his situation increased. There was such general 
confidence in his sagacity, courage, and purity, that the nation 
had come to think with his brain, and act with his hand. It 
was natural, that for an instant, there should be a feeling of 
absolute and helpless paralysis." The parallel is not far from 
perfect. We lament, with a sorrow like that of a household 
bereft of its head, one who as the people's leader, has led us 
through a fearful conflict with a power, overbearing and cruel 
like that of Spanish tyranny and inquisition. Its overthrow 
seems in sight. But the assassin's bullet has sped its way to 
the brain which would guide us, and the hand that we trusted 
to govern is powerless. For the rest ; — do you not remember 
the mourning, and the paralysis of last Saturday ? 

We eulogize our great men dead, but in such an hour as 
this, I feel like the eminent French Preacher, who though 
the royalty and court of the 'G-rand Monarch' were his audi- 
ence, was unawed by their little, greatness, and exclaimed 
'Only GrOD is great.' Oh ! the littleness of man ! Oh ! the 
littleness of nations ! "Put not your trust in princes, nor in 
the son of man, in whom is no help. His breath goeth forth, 
he returneth to the earth." "Behold, the nations are as a 
drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the 
balance." "Mine understanding returned unto me, and I 
blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him that 
liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, 
and his kingdom is from generation to generation ; and all 
the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing ; and he 



15 

doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among 
the inhabitants of the earth ; and none can stay his hand, or 
say unto him, What doest thou ?" The sovereignty of Jehovah 
is the rebuke of a sinful nation. The sovereignty of Jehovah 
is the consolation of an afflicted nation. The sovereignty of 
Jehovah is the strength of a resolute nation. 

At this hour, the capital of the nation beholds an unwonted 
and never to be forgotten scene. A long, long procession, — 
slowly, sadly makes its way through a dense concourse 
of lookers on. There is a bereft and w^eeping woman, with 
two sons to give the support of their manhood and youth. 
Their's is a peculiar grief; but we pass it, — for other men 
besides Presidents leave widows and orphans, with bleeding 
hearts. There are others of the family of nations, by their 
eminent representatives paying reverential regard to the 
honored departed ; but we pass them, — for their's is but an 
outward, ceremonious sympathy. The sorrow-stricken and 
disconsolate Nation follows ; though all that attendant com- 
pany inadequately shows the unnumbered multitudes of the 
land who mourn. Springing and commingled from every old 
world nationality, with one heart they prize our precious in- 
stitutions, and lament him who as their head embodied their 
dignity and power. Yet others stand timidly aside, not yet 
fully accustomed to count themselves in with the people, — 
the long-oppressed but now delivered Africans, than whom 
none feel a sorer bereavement, — none shed more honest tears. 
It is their Liberator who is passing to the grave, — the man, 
whom God made the instrument of endowing them with 
freedom, and their sorrow goes far into the land, even to where 
liberty is waited for, and not yet realized, where the bond- 
men are doing the last of their unrequited toil, and they too 
take up the mourning, imperfectly knowing the name, yet 
cherishing the memory of Lincoln. So we join to give him 
funereal honors, and the record shall say, as of the olden time, 
''All the people of Israel greatly bewailed him. They wept 



1« n 

many days and said, Why is that great man dead, who saved " 
the people of Israel ?" 

Men of the Republic ! Surely these solemn days should 
not sweep over us with their influence, as rolls a heavy wave, 
which subsiding, leaves no trace ! Shall we not draw nearer 
to God, with the cause of our country ? Shall we not draw 
nearer to each other, with one-hearted support and defence 
of all its imperilled interests ? Then no conspiracy can be 
destructive of our government ; no treason can strike the na- 
tion so that it shall die ! 



LB S '12 



